Originally Posted by
Endus
I got placed at an all-time low of somewhere around 1850 this season (can't recall precisely, somewhere between 1850 and 1875). I'm currently ranked about 2350. And I'm steadily climbing; prior to last night my season high was around 2300.
I've played just over 100 matches this season in Competitive, too, so I'm not playing a super-high amount, either.
And that's almost entirely solo queue. I think there were a couple matches where we clicked "Stay as team" after a good match, but that's the only pre-set group play I've had in there.
So yeah, it's absolutely possible.
I think what people need to realize is that the ranking system is not a progression system. You aren't supposed to advance through it. You're supposed to get "stuck" at a certain rank. If you rise much above it, you'll generally face players better than you, cause your team to lose, and fall back down. And vice versa, if you dip below it. The system is meant to keep you playing with players at about the same skill level as you, not to let you advance over time, the only way you'd be consistently advancing is if you're consistently playing better than your rank.
Here's a relatively quick exercise. Track your points won/lost per match for 10 matches or so, and look at the average for each. If you're gaining way more for wins than you're losing for losses, you should be rising in rank over time, with a 50/50 win/loss split (ignoring draws as irrelevant). If you're earning about the same for both wins and losses, you're ranked appropriately, and should stop expecting to be climbing. And should also probably stop pretending that your teammates are why you're stuck at your current rank; the results are telling you that you're not any better than they are.
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If you're winning more than you lose, and you're dropping in rank, it's because you're gaining way less for wins than you're losing for losses. And that's because your performance isn't par for your rank. You're over-ranked, and SHOULD be dropping to a lower position.
Don't look at medals, at all. They only compare your performance to your teammates, not the average players for your rank, and with the high variance between heroes, they're functionally useless. It's easy to get high damage/elims with a hero like Soldier 76 or Pharah, but that doesn't mean you're automatically more of an asset to your team than the Reaper who's surgically eliminating their healers but has lower numbers because he's more carefully picking targets and taking time to flank. There's also heroes like D.va for whom it's dead simple to get top elims, because you're spraying bullets EVERYWHERE, and dealing 3 damage to a guy who dies gives you an elimination, even if your Widowmaker headshot him for the rest of his health.
Medals have some use for seeing if someone's not performing well for that team, but they're pretty useless for figuring out how well you should be performing for your rank.